Homeschool Room 2013-2014

In preparation for our new school year, we have completely revamped some of our rooms, to include the play room and our main homeschooling area. As you may have seen on this post, we recently created a reading nook. Well, that lasted about a week before I decided to overhaul the entire room, nook included. We now have a new and improved reading nook, along with a whole new homeschool setup. So, without further adieu, here is our homeschool room for this school year.

This is what you first see when you come down the stairs. A little overwhelming and cluttered with all the books, maybe, but it is just the way we live. Books are everywhere. We were once told by movers that half our weight is in books. I’m sure that was an exaggeration, but it’s reflective of one of our passions, nonetheless. Anyway, this was the area that I originally made into a reading nook, but opted to make it more of an arts and crafts area. We have another craft area in the laundry room, which we use for messier activities, like painting. You can see that room, as well as the homeschool area before, by checking out the past post, Our Home School .

This is the view looking left from just in front of the stairs.

The view from inside the arts and music area.

A few of our little musical instruments. Tater Tot has a real electric guitar, like her Bubby, but we don’t keep that right out in the open. It’s a bit too tempting for sticky little fingers that would undoubtedly find their way onto it.

Another angle inside the arts and music area, where Tater tot is demonstrating one of our “busy” activities: creating plastic cup structures.

Sweet Pea trying her hand at stacking the cups.

We recently picked up the game tabletop at a thrift store. I knew it would make a great felt board. The pieces on there are from a nursery rhymes book. We also picked up a variety of colored felt, which I hope to use to make various shapes for greater play possibilities. I plan to use the tips I picked up here to cut them. Hopefully using the freezer paper is as easy to work with as they say it is.

Miscellaneous puzzles, games and art books. You can see my pile-o-felt on the top shelf. It’s on that ever-long to-do list. I’ll get around to that. Really.

Acting as a sort of divider, along with the chalk/marker boards, are the filing cabinet and plastic bins. I have miscellaneous items in each that are relevant for…you guessed it…reading, math and science, as well as teacher supplies.

This is the view into the math drawer, which has measuring tape, flash cards, money, base ten papers, etc.

The two filing cabinet drawers hold some of my teaching supplies. This one holds die-cuts, scrapbooking-type things, and similar.

This one holds all of our empty file folders, as well as index cards and filing tags.

The view of the chalk/marker boards from the main area, looking into the arts and music area.

Coming on around, we see the girls sitting on the bench that their Mamaw made them, which is filled with more supplies: currently bags and boxes and other things that will be filled in the future with goodness-knows-what. We also have much needed empty shelf space, which we will undoubtedly use to display projects throughout the year.

I decided to use clipboards this year to hold some of our artwork, rather than pinning each up individually and creating too many holes for the landlord’s comfort.

My desk. It will likely be the messiest element in the entire setup on a regular basis.

Though my metal Earth wall hanging isn’t exactly accurate, I still love it and it makes an excellent place to clip a variety of reminders to myself, which I inevitably need to keep myself on track (whatever that means). It’s magnetic, too!

I haven’t decided exactly what I will use this hanging file holder for, yet, but I know it will come in handy. This year I plan to work our way through the alphabet in a variety of primary subjects or themes, (animals, careers, etc.), so it will likely be used to house each theme, maybe the outlines for each month? Not sure yet. In any case, I suppose it will help to solidify exactly what it is we plan to do this year and then maybe I’ll figure out how to organize that plan…and what to use the file holder for!

I’ve had this magnetic board since Bubby was a littlin’. Amazingly, I still have all the magnets, too. It’s a nice little clock for teaching, but I can almost bet we will never get any use out of the daily planner. I am just not that scheduled…ever.

This is the new (and improved) reading nook/ quiet area. It is just to the left of my desk, flanked by two bookcases and a library cart in front. I like it better. It’s cozier. The biggest benefit, in my opinion, though? It has a wall..er go, something you can actually sit up against. The other area I had, though nice, was not conducive to Mommy sitting down and enjoying a good snuggle, as I need something to lean against. Hey, I’m not getting any younger, over here!

Ta-da! Our wall…to lean against…for people who like to lean.

Some of our geography, history, foreign language, and literature books.

Science and a few other miscellaneous books. This has an empty top, as well, for even more display space. We need display space. Can you tell?

The side of the library cart facing the reading nook. Tater Tot filled it with Dr. Seuss, Disney and Little Golden Books, along with a variety of others.

The other side of this library cart, which faces the girls’ desks, houses their personal binders and their go-to resources, such as a dictionary (not currently on there, actually), workbooks, and other reference materials. It also holds miscellaneous things such as magnets, small cars, popsicle sticks, and other doodads used for a variety of activities.

A view of the girls’ desks, along with some of our useful reference posters.

And, finally, the view back into the room from behind the desks. As you can see I’ve managed to keep a whole one section of one wall blank. This is solely because I know we will need it to hang up even more stuff later. So, that’s our homeschool room, revamped. I hope it gives you some inspiration to find a new way to use your own things, or to avoid having as much going on as we do! Either way, I hope you find what works for you and your family, so you can enjoy the space you’re in, just as we enjoy ours. We love our “new” room. If you’d like to see our other recent remodel, you can check out our playroom makeover here.

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3 thoughts on “Homeschool Room 2013-2014”

Wow – you have been busy. Your comment on the books – reminded me – I once told a mover (I think it was the KY to TX move) that we needed 35 book boxes, he laughed and said no way. I told him I’ve done this dance before and I know what I have – and yes, we did need 35 book boxes and yes, the rude guy had to go back and get more boxes.
I have some things – I will pack up and send you – a few pertinent education minded hanging (I use to shop Know It All – the school store before it closed) things and weed through my crafty boxes (2) again. Won’t be this week – but I will do it within the next two weeks. And get it off to you. I just wish you all were closer.